Judaism is the religion of Jews, not ‘the’ Jews because not all Jews are religious. Like Christianity and Islam, Judaism has at its core a set of moral values and ethical principles. Zionism is Jewish nationalism in the form of a sectarian, colonial enterprise which, in the process of creating and then expanding in the Arab heartland a state for some Jews, made a mockery of Judaism’s moral values and ethical principles and demonstrated contempt for international law and the human and political rights of the Palestinians. That’s why, for example, Nazi holocaust survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer titled his latest book An Ethical Tradition Betrayed, The End of Judaism.
Supporters of Israel right or wrong conflate Judaism and Zionism because the assertion that they are one and the same enables them to claim that criticism of the Zionist state of Israel is a manifestation of anti-Semitism. Often, almost always these days, the accusation that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism is false. And this false charge is the blackmail card played to silence criticism of, and suppress informed and honest debate about, the Zionist state and its policies. The reality is that Judaism and political Zionism are total opposites, and knowledge of the difference is the key to understanding two things. One is why it is perfectly possible to be passionately anti-Zionist – opposed to Zionism’s colonial enterprise – without being in any way, shape or form anti-Semitic (anti-Jew). The other is why it is wrong to blame all Jews everywhere for the crimes of the hard core Zionist few in Palestine that became Israel.
Usually, we think of the state of modern Israel, as well as the late nineteenth-century Zionist movement that led to its founding, as a response to anti-Semitism which grew out of cultural and religious Judaism. In Yakov M. Rabkin’s book What Is Modern Israel?, however, the author turns this understanding on its head, arguing convincingly that Zionism, far from being a natural development of Judaism, in fact has its historical and theological roots in Protestant Christianity. While most Jewish people viewed Zionism as marginal or even heretical, Christian enthusiasm for the Restoration of the Jews to the Promised Land transformed the traditional Judaic yearning for ‘Return’—a spiritual concept with a very different meaning—into a political project.
Zionism is primarily a Christian Protestant enterprise that has little to do with Judaism. This explains why US Christians are the most ardent Zionists and the most powerful supporters of Israel. The largest opposition to Zionism came initially from the rabbinical elite, which viewed it as heretical and an aberration of the Jewish faith. Zionism represents a break with Jewish tradition and historical continuity. Israel has to be seen in terms of European nationalism, colonial expansion, and geopolitical interests rather than as the divine fulfillment of biblical prophecies or even a culmination of Jewish history. The traditional Judaic yearning for “Return”, which is a purely spiritual concept, was turned into a political cause by Christians in order to accelerate the coming of Christ and force the Jews to convert to Christianity. The influence of Christian Zionists plays a very important role up to the present day. These are only some of the most provocative conclusions of Yakov M. Rabkin’s fine analysis of modern day Israel who teaches Contemporary History at the University of Montreal.
In nine chapters, the author compares the Zionist claims to the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel) with rabbinical Jewish teachings. He shows that the Zionist narrative has little to do with Judaism. Leading representatives of Zionism have cherry-picked from Jewish tradition to incorporate it into Zionist mythology. John Rose calls in his book “The Myth of Zionism” David Ben-Gurion the “greatest myth-maker”. The “Land of Israel” claim, as made by the Zionists, has a totally different meaning in Judaism. “‘Promised land’ means, in fact, that it belongs not to the to whom the promise was made, but to the one who made the promise.”
To understand modern-day Israel, one should put Judaism and Jewish tradition aside because such a connection is misleading; for “Zionism and the state that incarnates it are revolutionary phenomena”. Such provocative theses are very numerous scattered all over Rabkin’s book. It’s easier to understand the policies and the structure of the State of Israel by leaving aside references to Jewish history. As a consequence, Rabkin suggests that one should speak of the State of Israel as a “Zionist state” rather than a “Jewish state”. The same holds true for the Israel lobby that should be designated as a “Zionist lobby” rather than a “Jewish lobby”. Instead of delving into the religious mythology of Jewish history, Rabkin urged readers to analyze Israel within the context of international politics, Western interests and the resources of the Middle East.
“The Jews came to Zionism long after the Christians”, states the author. Even Zionist leader Theodor Herzl was influenced by Christian protestant thinking. (He first wanted to “solve the Jewish question” (Judenfrage) by having all Jews convert to Catholicism.) The idea to gather all Jews in one location did not originate with Jews but in English and American Protestant circles. It was considered of “supreme importance to Christianity” writes Rabkin. Herzl got initially familiar with this idea through a Protestant clergyman from the British embassy in Vienna. Till today Protestant support for Zionism continues to play a crucial role, which can be seen in the U. S. and other countries. According to a Pew poll, 82 percent of WASPs (=White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) believe that God gave the State of Israel to the Jewish people, while only 40 percent of Jews share this belief, as Rabkin says.
Rabkin stresses the importance of the Russian dimension within the Zionist movement and highlights the fact that modern day Israel can’t be properly understood without accounting for the Jewish Russian influence. Jews from the Russian Empire formed the backbone of the Zionist colonial settlement enterprise in Palestine. The most active Zionists to settle in Palestine were Russians, who strove to build a new socialist society ignoring the natives who had lived there for generations. They called their policy hafrada, “separation”. Although there hasn’t been any significant emigration from the Soviet Union to Palestine/Israel since the 1920s until the end the 20th Century, over 60 percent of Knesset members in the 1960s were of Russian origin or descent. That’s why it’s no coincidence that the Netanyahu government gets along so well with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in particular, Moldova-born Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
To speak about contemporary Jewish history, one has to deal with the Nazi genocide, writes Rabkin. The Nazi genocide is a constitutive part of Israeli Zionist identity. Zionists and religious orthodox Jews have drawn very different conclusions from this horrific crime against humanity. “This tragedy has been transformed into a vector for national unity in Israel, and for Zionist allegiance in the Diaspora.” This transformation has given rise to serious critique among Israeli intellectuals. Although Zionists and their detractors agree on the hostility encountered by the Jews over the centuries, they differ on the reasons. Zionists generally explain “this hostility by the political and military weakness of the Jews, while pious Jews tend to see it as a punishment for the sins committed by the Jews themselves”, argues Rabkin.
Israel’s modernity is fragmented and uneven. Although the State of Israel is a high-tech society with a powerful military that wields atomic weapons, hundreds of thousands of its ultra-orthodox citizens lack modern elementary education and languish in poverty. The legitimacy of Israel is still questioned in the region. On the one hand, some segments of orthodox Jewry still do not recognize the Zionist State because they reject the nationalistic reconceptualization of the Jews; on the other hand, Palestinians – the victims of Zionist colonization – refuse to recognize Israel as a “Jewish” State as demanded by the Zionist ruling class. Even the question “who is Jewish” is still contentious within Israel. Is Israel a Jewish or a Zionist state? The author has opted for the latter because the gap between Zionism and Jewish history continues to exist and could not be bridged until today.
Yakov Rabkin’s book demonstrates that Zionism is not the culmination of Judaism. Nor is the mantra of “Jewish and democratic state” is very persuasive. The book’s provoking views are grounded is convincing and boldly arguments. After “A Threat from Within: a Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism”, this is another must read from the pen of a true scholar.